Wedding party finds how hard it is to get near a presidential candidate

By Sarah Huisenga

August 9, 2012

NEW YORK -- The opportunity to meet the man who may one day be the next president of the United States is often a thrilling -- even exhilarating -- experience. Take Mitt Romney. People often wait in long lines after his speeches, many bearing gifts, for the opportunity to simply shake his hand. Others pay large amounts of money to attend fundraisers where they can take a photograph or share a few private words with the man who one day may occupy the White House.

Some are a bit more extreme.

Case in point: As Romney’s motorcade on Wednesday drove through the streets of Lakewood, N.J., en route to a high-dollar fundraiser, the entourage passed an Orthodox Jewish wedding party in the middle of taking wedding photographs. Upon recognizing that the vehicles contained the presumptive Republican nominee, the group ditched the bride and groom and began to chase the cavalcade of dark SUVs down the street, according to a pool report by Yahoo News’s Holly Bailey.

Waving cameras in the air, the group of at least 10 dressed in wedding attire tried to approach Romney’s vehicle as it pulled into Lake Terrace Hall, the site of his late-afternoon fundraiser. But, as they quickly learned, it is not easy to get close to a presidential candidate. The group was immediately swarmed by several men wearing dark suits and earpieces.

"Oh, you're Secret Service," one woman said, as she was asked by an agent to move back. "We just want to see Romney."

While a meeting with the potential leader of the free world was not in the cards for the wedding party, the bride and groom they had abandoned in the midst of their photographs were much luckier. The Romney campaign later announced that Romney took a photo with the newlyweds.